Our jolly captain was Mario, who welcomed guests to the ship’s management room. There was no overlap in websites visited every of the 2 weeks. We noticed quite a lot of environments on most of the islands.
For the reason that Galápagos Islands straddle the equator, dawn and sundown have been all the time round 6:00 am and 6:00 pm, with solely a really quick interval of twilight because the solar sank practically straight down under the horizon. It’s only between these instances that guests are allowed to set foot on any of the islands, and the entire variety of guests at anybody time and on one path or touchdown web site is strictly restricted. As well as, every stroll is proscribed to 2 hours. Tour corporations should reserve touchdown instances and spots properly upfront of a guided journey.
A lot to Wilderness Journey’s credit score and planning, they managed to order the 2 greatest instances for our twice-daily walks on the islands—the two-hour durations simply after dawn and simply earlier than sundown. There are two key the reason why these are the very best instances. First, they’re the best hours of the day, and second, these are the so-called “magic hours” with a superb combination of sunshine and shadow and a heat glow to the panorama that make for superb images.
On a typical day, we would go away the Mary Anne on two pangas (inflatable Zodiacs) in time to make a touchdown simply at dawn. With such an early begin, we loved some magnificent sunrises.
There have been each ”moist” and “dry” landings, that means we both waded by means of calf-deep water to get onto a sandy seaside or have been in a position to step immediately onto rocks from the pangas.
After the morning stroll on rigorously marked trails, we headed again to the boat for breakfast. Those that wished may then exit for about an hour of snorkeling. After lunch and a short siesta, we had a second alternative for snorkeling.
On some days, this exercise was changed by a coastal tour within the pangas, the place we have been in a position to see penguins and sea lions in addition to look at the spectacular rock formations alongside the coast and admire the unimaginable layering within the rocks that resulted from a number of volcanic eruptions and lava flows. On the finish of the afternoon walks on most days, we have been handled to spectacular sunsets.
